Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here. — attributed to Capt John Parker, Lexington Militia Apr 19, 1775
Patriots Day… the day we all take time to remember and celebrate the heroic action taken by a few farmers and townsmen over two centuries ago – what’s that? You’ve never heard of Patriots Day? Doesn’t surprise me. While it SHOULD be a date recognized nationwide, not unlike Independence Day, it seems to be limited to the New England area, where those farmers and townsmen shed their blood that April morning.
If you don’t know what happened on the morning of April 19, you might at least be familiar with the night that preceded it…
Listen, my children, and you shall hear,
of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
‘Twas the 18th of April, in seventy-five,
hardly a man is left alive
who remembers that famous day and year.He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,—One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”
—H.W.Longfellow
Ordinary people. Citizens, fed up with tyranny, reached their breaking point on that April morning. The king had no true understanding of the colonial mindset, nor their determination. His soldiers and generals were equally clueless, and thus the bucolic sounds of a springtime morning in a small country-town were shattered by the sound of gunfire. “The shot heard ’round the world,” they call it.
The shot that changed everything, and led to “the world turn’d upside down” at Yorktowne, a little over six years later.
Spend a moment, today, in gratitude to those ordinary citizens, farmers and townsmen alike, who stood up for their rights to be a free people.
Patriots Day – it’s not just for Maine and Massachusetts – it’s for all of us.
h/t instapundit, by way of day by day